“Hello, Master and Mistress Carrillo! It’s good to see you again!”
“And you, Ragnar, and Simos-and you too, children,” said Mrs. Carrillo, but she looked distracted. “Where’s Gideon? We thought he was coming. We asked specially for him to come.”
“Uh-oh,” said Tyler quietly and turned to Steve Carrillo. “Come on, you and me might as well get out of here before the manure hits the fan.”
“Why?” Steve seemed a little annoyed. “What’s going on?”
Lucinda’s heart was sinking. Everyone had been so nice last year-why couldn’t things be the same? Mr. Walkwell was walking toward the Carrillo parents as if he had to perform a very unpleasant chore, but before he reached them Carmen grabbed Lucinda’s wrist and dragged her away from the others, around the house to the patio and festivities in the back yard.
Half a dozen Carrillo relatives, mostly women, were setting things up on picnic tables covered with red, white, and blue paper tablecloths. “My dad’s angry,” Carmen told her quietly. “He needs to talk to your uncle real bad, but Mr. Goldring won’t answer any of our messages.”
“It’s… complicated.” Lucinda didn’t know how much she was allowed to tell. “Gideon’s… well, he’s gone.” She held out the roses she had brought wrapped in a newspaper, cut by Pema from one of the gardens behind the house just that morning. “Here.”
“Aren’t those pretty!” said a voice behind her. Lucinda turned to see Carmen’s Grandma Paz standing there, a tiny, round woman with a casserole dish in her oven-mitted hands. “Ah, yes, you are Lucinda from next door, of course. I am glad to see you are still alive!”
Carmen said, “Grandma!”
The old woman shook her unnaturally red-haired head. “Don’t blame me for telling the truth. That is a bad place. No one should bring children there, but that young Gideon fellow was always too sure of himself.”
“Young…?” said Lucinda, surprised, but Carmen was already pulling her away.
“Let’s put those flowers in a vase.” As they went into the house Carmen leaned close. “Don’t let it bug you. She’s always like that-although she’s worse with you and Tyler.” Carmen’s eyes grew wide. “Is that the witch’s kid who came with you?”
“What? Oh, Colin, yeah.”
“I hardly recognized him. He’s not quite as geeky as he used to be. In fact, he looks almost human.” Carmen laughed. “Come on, before my grandmother comes back and starts praying over you. I’ve got something to give you.”
In her room, Carmen produced a small box and held it out to Lucinda. “Go on, open it!”
Inside, nestled in tissue paper, lay a charm bracelet, a collection of silver crosses and clovers and hearts and even a tiny horse with wings.
“Oh, Carmen, it’s beautiful! Thank you so much!”
“My aunt gave it to me for my birthday, but I already have one like it that I’ve had for years.” She grinned, pleased by Lucinda’s reaction. “Glad you like it. Now come look-I totally have to show you this note a boy in school sent me, trying to be all suave and ask me out. It’s such a crack-up!”
The food was excellent and so was the company-Carmen was lots of fun and Lucinda wished they lived closer to each other during the rest of the year-but she still felt restless and worried. Things felt different than they had the year before, which had been one of the nicest days she’d ever had anywhere. For one thing, it was clear that Carmen’s parents, Hector and Silvia, weren’t very happy, and they spent a lot of time talking quietly with Mr. Walkwell. Ragnar took part in some of these conversations, but after a while he just went off by himself and began drinking beer in serious quantities. Watching him, Lucinda was glad they were driving back in a very slow horse cart.
“Hello and thanks for nothing,” Tyler said in her ear as she was standing in line for pie; it made her jump.
“What’s your problem?”
“You and Carmen ran off and stuck us with Colin Needle… and Alma.”
“What’s wrong with Alma? She’s sweet.”
“She just follows me around like a puppy dog. She tried to hold my hand!” Tyler said it with such outrage that it was all Lucinda could do not to laugh out loud. “And Colin, all he does is complain about how stupid Steve’s games are, or how loud the music is.” Tyler threw his hands over his ears as someone turned the mariachi-style music up even louder. “He must be loving this…!”
It was a song Lucinda recognized-“La Bamba.”
Carmen ran up. “Leave your boring brother here with my boring brother. Let’s go jump on the trampoline!”
Surprised, Lucinda laughed and let herself be pulled out of the house and into the front yard.
“I’m going to send Colin out to join you!” Tyler warned.
“Yo no soy marinero!
Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan
Soy capitan,
Soy capitan!”
“Ba, ba, bamba…! Ba, ba, bamba…!” Lucinda sang as she and Carmen bounced up and down beneath the low, gray sky. Her new bracelet jingled merrily, and her feelings came together with the music and her own clumsy but energetic jumping and became something like joy: it was going to be a good Fourth of July after all.
Carmen stopped bouncing and swayed to a stop. “Whoa, who’s that?” She stared out across the empty front yard.
Lucinda looked up to see a distant figure stumbling past the cow barn. Whoever it was looked unwell, rolling like an old drunk. In fact, it looked a bit like Great-Uncle Gideon-an old mad invalid with his robe billowing.
It was, she realized a moment later. It really was Gideon.
Chapter 15
One moment Tyler and Steve Carrillo were loudly explaining to Colin Know-Nothing Needle how full of bull he was-that video games not only didn’t make you stupid, they improved your hand-eye coordination; they even used them to train for the United States Army!-then the next moment everybody was running around yelling “Call a doctor!” and “Somebody tell Hector!” Tyler heard his sister shouting the name “Gideon” and he and Colin both jumped up at the same time and ran toward the front yard.
Gideon Goldring, looking sick and exhausted and very thin, was crouched in the late-afternoon sun, surrounded by Lucinda and Carmen and Alma and a growing crowd of other Carrillo relatives. As Lucinda gave Gideon a drink from a bottle of water someone had brought from the kitchen, Mr. Walkwell and Ragnar suddenly appeared around the corner of the house at a run.
“Where did he come from?” Ragnar demanded.
“He just… he just showed up,” Lucinda said. “He came across the fields.”
Tyler heard something else above the babble of voices, a thin, high-pitched cry in the distance. Colin Needle, who had been staring down at Gideon with his mouth hanging open, looked up and then shook his head like someone waking up too fast. “Hang on-that’s my mother …!”
And indeed another shape was bumping across the fields toward the Carrillos’ house, half-walking, half- trotting-Patience Needle in her old-fashioned clothes, waving her arms and shouting, “Don’t touch him!” Tyler realized he had never heard the witch raise her voice before. “Don’t!” she cried as she hurried toward them. “You must leave him alone!”
Gideon was so pale that his skin was almost green, his forehead damp with sweat. “Won’t, ” he suddenly said, pulling away from the bottle so that water splashed onto his chest. He tried to grab at Lucinda’s arm but his
